RED ALERT!!!

It has been such fun painting this, just capturing that expression and playing with some really bright colour.

I have always struggled in the past when painting predominantly red/orange paintings because I feel colour as emotion and emotions as colour. So for me to use a predominantly orange/red palette makes me much more daring, determined, energetic, powerful, impulsive and slightly aggressive than usual.  It is a highly visible colour that makes me make spur of the moment rash decisions which is so unlike my style of painting and, in the past, has led to me making mistake after mistake. My saviour in this painting was Dawn's green eyes. when I started to get overwhelmed by all the orange/ reds I would just focus on the eyes and add a little more detail to them until I felt calmer again.

Do you find you are affected by the colours you paint with?